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Monday, August 10, 2009

Thanks Mom and Dad

Another year and another Mount Snow is in the books. I have definitely had a love hate relationship with this mountain. Last summer at the Root 66 Kenda Classic at Mount Snow I was rocking it and after destroying a front wheel and being able to fix it I rode to a 4th place finish only seconds off 3rd. A couple of week later I could barely get myself up the climbs and finished in 10th, embarassing.

This year was quite a bit different. The day before I was feeling awesome and powering up the climbs super well. Unfortunately I was not flowing the technical stuff too well that day. Race day rolled around the next day and I was climbing like a small child. It was really embarassing. I just could not ride up hill with any speed whatsoever, so sad. Fortunately I was actually able to clean the technical parts of the course like none other, I was definitely stoked on that! Alas, with not being able to ride uphill on one of the hardest uphill courses in the USA I lasted for 2 laps of the 5. By far my worst performance of the year.

But if now is a low point then things can only get better from here. After the race I made my way up to Lake Placid, NY and spent the next two days with my parents enjoying the adirondacks.

Before I continue I would like to thank my parents for being the coolest ever. While at Mount Snow the sole of my shoe began to tear off leaving me to attempt to super glue it back together the night before the race. Though it looked like it was going to hold I definitely finished the race and found it farther disconnected than before. When I arrived at Lake Placid and announced this misfortune to my parents they said they would take me around to the local bike shops in order to solve my problem. After much searching we were able to find a pair of Shimano M182 shoes and some new Crank Brothers cleats on sale for an awesome price. Thanks mom and dad you guys are the best and always keep me rolling when times are tough!!!!

After solving my shoe problem I headed out for a ride in the Adirondacks. In the Lake Placid area if you want to ride at White Face Mountain you are required to pay and sign a waiver. Though I am totally down on signing a waiver (I do it every time I have to race) paying to ride my bike when I am not using lift access is pretty ridiculous to me. I quickly got some beta that you could ride this trail from White Face over to the Flume Trails outside of Wilmington. These trails are sick. They really aren't all that technical (there are some more technical bits) but they are super fun. There are parts that are like riding down a pump track. Just pump it and you accelerate down the mountain, can you say Wicked!!!!

Overall even though I raced horribly on Saturday I would say it was a pretty good weekend. Now to regroup, get fit, and try to rip it at Windham. Though I would love it to be wet and sloppy I highly doubt that would happen.